Sierra Reed wants to make it clear right off the bat that she has the ability to find her place in any situation, anywhere in the world, through her perseverance and strength. Despite the fact that she is strong-willed and determined, she is one who will wear her heart on her sleeve. Not intimidated by age, ("I'm 25 and if you're 45 that's great, but if we have differences, I'm going to let you know"), Reed will speak her mind, yet she does it with purpose and passion. She hopes that her tenacity will balance out her "strong nature."

This fashion student and model is no stranger to roughing it. After moving to Taiwan by herself at a very young age, Sierra is used to living in places with no running water and filled with grime and bugs. Sierra is a self-proclaimed adventure junkie who "loves to experience new things all the time" and she believes that those experiences make her a prime candidate for SURVIVOR.

Sierra claims she isn't a "very stereotypical model," because she doesn't do it for the notoriety; she does it because modeling can help facilitate new experiences and allows for travel to amazing locations which is something she enjoys tremendously.

Her modeling background has helped to shape her strategy for the game. Forced to deal with a variety of personalities all competing for the same goal is nothing new to her, having lived with five catty models vying for one spot. This experience will be to her advantage when forming alliances and making her way through the twists of the game.

Sierra is single and currently resides in Los Angeles, Calif. Her birth date is September 29.

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

San Diego TelevisionFour San Diegans are back from "Survivor" and "Amazing Race"

By Robert P. LaurencePosted on Thu, Feb 5th, 2009

Sierra Reed, Sydney Wheeler, Amanda Blackledge and Kris Klicka are all back at their day jobs now, but their thoughts are elsewhere

....

Sierra and Sydney drift now and then back to the jungles of Brazil, but they can’t say what exactly they did there. Not until, at least, the 18th edition of the CBS reality show “Survivor” begins airing Thursday, Feb. 12....

They’re all San Diegans, all contestants on the reality adventure shows, all sworn to secrecy about what happened during the filming, all absolutely forbidden from saying who won each competition.

Sierra is a 23-year-old model who grew up in Carlsbad and graduated from Carlsbad High School in 2004, but lives now in Los Angeles. She’s traveled the world on modeling assignments, and is starting up her own design practice. Recent jobs have taken her to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany and New Zealand. Not surprisingly, she agreed to be a “Survivor” contestant because, she said, “I’m a huge travel buff.”

As for Tocantins, the “Survivor” location in the Brazilian highlands, CBS describes it as “one of the most rugged locations ever visited” by the long-running hit (they say that every time), and that for 39 days the contestants battled “scorching temperatures, torrential downpours and dangerous wildlife.”

“I'm a little jet-setter,” Sierra said. “I love to experience new things all the time and this was definitely one of the most rare experiences I've ever had.

I'm waiting to see how it looks on TV. It changed my life forever in a really great way, in a really amazing way.”

Not that Sierra was eager to sign up for those 39 days of scorching temperatures etc. etc. “They asked me to go on the show,” she said. “I told them they were crazy. It wasn’t anything I was interested in before, but when they mentioned traveling I was all in.”

She discovered she liked the primitive life, at least for a little while. “There’s so much pressure here (in L.A.). It was a great experience to have that taken away, especially for somebody like me. I wanted to go back to the basics and just live. It’s something we never do any more.”

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

I'm so glad she wasn't voted off! I feel so bad for her, she's trying really hard but the big guys in her tribe like Tyson just don't see the need to keep her. It'll be great to see her fly under the radar and go deep...

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

“You Don’t Have to Be a Bitch in Order to Make It” – RealityNewsOnline’s Exclusive Interview with Survivor: Tocantins’ Sierra

We didn’t see much of Sierra strategizing on Survivor, and indeed she said on Survivor Insider that she wasn’t the conniving type of person. So why did she come on the show? How did she manage to stay 30 days without such scheming? And what did she do that we didn’t get to see? Plus, what does she have to say about Tyson and Coach? Read on to find out!

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Sierra, and thanks for taking the time to talk to RealityNewsOnline! Starting at the beginning, what was your strategy coming into the game?

Sierra: My strategy coming into the game was to find one person that I truly believed was a good person and would never lie to me. I was a little scrambled for time early because I was at everyone’s mercy. I chose Brendan to share a little information about where the idol was buried. I wanted to take him all the way to the end and be a good person all the way through. And I believe I stood up to that.

RNO: From what we saw, a lot of what you did involved following Brendan’s lead. What strategizing did you do that we didn’t get to see?

Sierra: A lot of strategy that they didn’t show. The fire pit idea [when we were digging for the hidden immunity idol on the beach] that they did show was my idea – I was setting it up to look like that.

You didn’t see was that we planted Erinn a fake idol as well. I used the actual plaque that was my clue and tied it to the back of treemail. It was on a different lot of water, but it said to go ten paces and dig. It worked and she dug for like two days. When Joe came over at the merge, he said look at this idol and she said look at this clue and they both realized. It just didn’t make sense to show [that story]. Brendan was like, you’re brilliant! He had tried to use a piece of paper, but I was like, “Erinn is too smart for that.”

Other than that, mostly to keep quiet is the best, especially when you start so young and being in an alliance. Just keep quiet and build relationships and ignore your alliance. We probably spoke every five days about what we were doing because it’s so hard to get a moment without looking suspicious. It looks like I never had any plans in the game, but I did. Also, me just being true to one person, the strategy would come later, but I didn’t want to pull anything until it was the right time.

RNO: What’s the deal with Jeff Probst suggesting in his blog that you’re dating a Survivor producer?

Sierra: (Laughs) I think the funny thing is me and Taj and Debbie would be lying in the shelter and saying we’re so hunger and the hunger pains are terrible. So we got tired of looking at our same guys and would prowl around and look at the camera men and the producers and would tongue in cheek it with them. It was great to be able to look at some really cute Australian guys. I think Jeff also likes to rally it up because I was the young one and I used to say how hot his crew was.

RNO: So you’re not dating a Survivor producer?

Sierra: I am dating someone, but I was dating someone before I left – not somebody new.Click Here

RNO: Back a few weeks ago, you said in a clip that was shown on Survivor Insider, that you are not conniving and when your time is over, it’s over. You added that you wouldn’t play politics to stay longer. Why come on Survivor if you’re not conniving?

Sierra: Because I think I really proved you don’t have to be to make it a long time. Thirty out of 39 days is really long for not being a conniving person. Where I didn’t make up for being a conniver, I made up for in challenges and other strengths and with heart. I went there for the experience, not for the money, and I had to make sure I got that experience. If I had been paranoid and conniving, it wouldn’t have been the same. It felt good to be out there. I was happy because I was pulling my own weight. You don’t have to be a bitch in order to make it. You can be a good person.

RNO: Was that part of your frustration in dealing with the lies of Coach? That he was making you out to be a liar when doing so would have been totally against your goal in the game?

Sierra: Yeah! It feels like when you’re a kid and didn’t do something wrong and your parents are saying you broke something. You’re screaming and your body’s locking because you didn’t do it. This person is blatantly lying in front of my face and I’m telling people he’s lying and he’s claiming to be the most honest person in Survivor. You want to call it drama, whatever. I stood up for myself and screamed, “You’re a liar!” And all of America knows he’s a liar. It doesn’t matter if they believed me, now as we all watch it, I go home looking like the good person.

RNO: When I spoke to Tyson last week, he didn’t have a whole lot of good things to say about you. Among other comments, he said, “She is one of those people that doesn’t know she’s stupid and doesn’t know she’s annoying.” What do you have to say about him?

Sierra: The funny thing is Tyson and I have never connected until Ponderosa [where they go after they’re voted out]. Unfortunately, I think when your ego gets bruised intensely, the person you’re going to take it out on was the one you made the biggest ass of yourself to, and that was me.

I know I’m not stupid or annoying – America knows that, we all watched it. He never gave me the time of day. Those certain types of person, they don’t ever listen because they think they know everything and are really good at things – and he was, he was a great physical asset to our tribe. But when he says that about me, he’s deflecting it from himself going home that night.

All I asked him was – you’ve already been dicks to me, I’m going home, for six days they made it a living hell for me, I still fought so hard. So I thought, just don’t be mean to me. The first thing he does at Tribal Council is he nails me. But I’m not putting your name down because of personality, it’s because you’re good at challenges and a big threat. It’s Survivor, not Survivor Personality. He was arrogant and I don’t care what he thinks. At the end of the day, we all like each other and it was just a game.

RNO: When Coach lectured you on loyalty after he tried to vote you off, didn’t you just want to smack him? I mean, I wanted to smack him and I was just watching on TV!

Sierra: (Laughs) Wooo! I did. I smacked him with my words. What you didn’t see but see me say it in Tribal Council, I said, “Look, you’re both stuck up s#!t creek and I want to keep you both there.” There was no way in heck I was going to let them take me back in and be like, “I’m saving you.” No way, I had done enough pleading and begging that the first conversation I had [after the reward challenge] was the first time I let it all go and told them how it was. Coach called me the oracle [because I spelled out the alliance situation, as I did on the show]. You guys will never have my vote and I will walk out with my dignity.

RNO: Having now seen the episode, do you have a better understanding of why you were voted off?

Sierra: What needed to happen was J.T. needed to win immunity so Coach didn’t. But for the first time in Coach’s life, he won immunity in a board game. If it had been running, he definitely would have lost. He won immunity, which sent me home. They were going to save me and that brought us back.

I kind of had a sense that I was going to go out and I went out with a big bang and laid into him. I think that by voting out Debbie, they think would have caused more arguments, but I don’t think I would have entertained more arguments with coach. America saw what they needed to see.

They didn’t want more controversy. Coach is a very, very crazy person – the things he says and does are crazy. You don’t want to spend three days with somebody who is going crazy – I can only imagine what he would do. I’m sure he would whittle some nunchucks and kick all our butts… supposedly.

RNO: What was the most eye-opening thing you saw on the show that you didn’t know about while you were there?

Sierra: I knew Coach lied but I really didn’t know the extent. When he lied twice. I thought they were roundabout lies, but he black and white lied to J.T. I’m the one who said, “no way.” Then he said it again and I was like, oh my God, I almost broke the TV.

RNO: We’re running out of time, so do you have anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?

Sierra: I went for an experience and I was never really there for the money. I really did have a great experience and I will take it with me forever. I have no regrets and I have a great connection with all these people after everything’s been said and done; we have something nobody will be able to explain to others. And I hold that closely.

After nearly receiving her tribal walking papers a week earlier on Survivor Tocantins, former Timbira tribe member, Sierra Reed, lived to outwit and outplay for another day when the merged Forza tribe took their focus off of Sierra to blindside Tyson Apostol. Although there wasn't much Sierra could do to win over her Tocantins tribe, she did manage to call out Coach in an effort to catch the tall tale telling soccer coach in a lie.

Despite the fact that her days on Survivor Tocantins were numbered, Sierra's confrontation with Coach gave her Forza tribe mates something more to think about before her Tocantins torch was eventually extinguished by Jeff Probst, making Sierra Reed the third member of the Survivor Tocantins jury.

Although Sierra started this season of Survivor at a disadvantage, dropped off in Brazil while nursing a cold, she did overcome the odds to survive, shake up the game, form a secret alliance, and make it all the way to becoming a Tocantins jury member.

The morning after Sierra was voted out of Survivor Tocantins, we caught up with the Los Angeles model to learn why her alliance with Brendan fell idle, what she thought of the surprise blindside of Tyson, and how she felt about Coach while she was in the heat of Survivor Tocantins action.

THE DEADBOLT: How shocked and excited were you at tribal council last week?

SIERRA REED: Oh, gosh! When Tyson went home, I think the facial expressions say it all. I exhaled right there. I could not believe that they took out Tyson. It was a really brilliant move and I wish my tribe would’ve been smart enough to get out of the stupid warrior alliance and be smart enough to take out the strongest player. It’s a strategy and I was very relieved, especially after he ran his mouth the whole entire day. And I wasn’t even going to vote for him, to tell you the truth.

That night I told him, ‘Look, when we go to tribal council, don’t be a jerk to me. Just let me go quietly and I’ll be fine. Don’t frigging stir my pot.’ The moment we get there, he does, so I vote for him and call him a jerk. And the funny thing is, he goes home packing. So I got the last laugh.

THE DEADBOLT: You never seemed to bounce back from the very beginning when you were sick, and everyone seemed to look at you as being weak. What was your original strategy to begin with?

SIERRA: My original strategy was to go into the game and pick out someone. Gosh, I only had three days to do it. Because by then I was scrambling to pick someone I thought I could take to the very end and be completely honest with them, and trustworthy with them the whole way through, and kind of protect each other, which is what I did with Brendan. I think that I wasn’t looked at as weak after I basically kicked all the guy’s butts, except for maybe Brendan, Tyson, and J.T. I mean, everybody else I did really well in challenges. I don’t think I was perceived as weak unless I was sick, which was in the beginning.

THE DEADBOLT: In your opinion, what went wrong with that secret alliance that you had with Brendan?

SIERRA: This is the one move that I would’ve changed in the show, and that is we hadn’t spoken for ten days. So when Stephen and Taj came over and we all merged together, me and Brendan should’ve immediately walked over to her and said, ‘Look, we’re still on the same page. I know we haven’t talked for a while, but we’re both in it with you. We’re still both sitting on the idols and we’re still going to take this to the end.’

But Brendan went on reward and, gosh, there’s a video of me on CBS saying, ‘You know what? I should go up to Taj right now and tell her - it’s okay, it’s okay.’ And I waited for Brendan in case he had said something that would contradict my statement, which, if I went over there and said something that contradicted him, it would make her not believe us. So I was very [unsure] about how I should speak to her and I wish I would have, because in not doing so she scrambled very fast and changed her mind and it was too late.

THE DEADBOLT: Actually, when I was speaking to Brendan, he said he had regrets for not throwing you the idol when he was walking away.

SIERRA: Oh, that’s really sweet. I feel a little bit better [laughs]. But he’s not allowed to, that’s why. They’re not allowed to throw the idol to you after they’re voted out.

THE DEADBOLT: What’s your overall impression of Coach?

SIERRA: My overall impression of Coach is definitely - There’s two different impressions: There’s the one you don’t see, deep down inside, and then there’s Coach. Coach is a liar. I don’t think he means to be a liar, I think he loves to tell tall stories and loves to believe them in his mind. It’s an adventure. It’s a journey whenever he tells a story and he feels like he’s experiencing it with whoever he’s telling it to.

I think he played it up a lot for the camera. There are parts of him that are completely obnoxious. But I think last night, you know, proclaiming yourself to be the most honest person in Survivor history is something you should not do if Sierra is going to come after you and out you. You know what I mean? I think it was a really bad move for him to say he wasn’t going to lie, and he was going to change the game, because I was going to do everything I possibly could to make sure if I was leaving that they would know he was completely full of B.S.

THE DEADBOLT: How did you and Tyson get along at Ponderosa?

SIERRA: Tyson and I? You can go watch it on CBS.com. We poured a vat of olive oil down a slip and slide and ate all day long, and slip slide in the river, and let bygones be bygones.